Kyodo: US to List Nuclear Weapons Subject to Abandonment in the First Month

The United States will reportedly hold high-level talks with North Korea soon to produce a list of the North's weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons subject to abandonment.

Japan's Kyodo News reported that the United States plans to create the list within a month and realize the North's complete denuclearization over the next two-and-a-half years before U.S. President Donald Trump's term ends in January 2021.

According to a U.S. government study in 2011 released by the Washington-based think tank Institute for Science and International Security, the United States estimated it would take about two and a half years for the North's denuclearization, with the first month to be spent for producing a list of the North's uranium enrichment facilities and suspending related facilities.

The resumption of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency is also included in the first month. According to the timetable, Pyongyang is supposed to disable facilities from the third to the sixth month and enter into the verification process over the next year.

Kyodo, however, added that some experts see a 15-year timeline for the North's complete denuclearization.